Was Jack the Ripper a Social Reformer?
Introduction
Jack the Ripper’s identity still remains unknown, even after a century his identity still remains unknown even after killing five poor prostitutes in 19th Century Britain. His murders, all violent showed some knowledge on anatomy but some doctors insist that no knowledge was used while in the process of dissecting the victims’ bodies. He terrified the eastern part of London but what we can say is that he was a social reformer. His murders attracted so much media attention because media was growing meanwhile with these happenings British government had to place laws to improve conditions for everyone.
Section One:
London in the 19th Century was very poor. There was the rich part,
Various people were involved in this process for the improvement of conditions such as Octavia Hill (1838-1912) she was a reformer due to her help in the improvisation of the housing conditions for the British population. She also fought for the perseverance of open spaces and she was one of the founders of the National Trust.1 Another example of a social reformer was Robert Owen (1771-1858) Owen was a Welsh social reformer who had fought for the working conditions for factory workers. Specifically, he tried and to ease the labour hours for children in factories. 2 Besides these people who changed English society there were also certain events which changed conditions for the people living in Britain. An example of these events was the Dock Strike. The Dock Strike involved the dock workers of London. It later on was a victory for the strikers. The intention of this strike was to grow awareness of the poverty in Victorian England. Colonel G. R. Birt (the manager of the east side docks) states: “the workers were getting very little amounts of money and that they would come to work without a crumble in their stomachs” What the workers wanted was a raise in their salary and the British government had to do it because as they would not work in the docks no trading would be occurring so no money